Reply #26: LOL, so basically almost all "movement liberals"

[NYC Liberal]

are perfect! They have the best of the "movement liberal" qualities AND the best of the "action liberal" qualities! But (according to your framing) there is NO such thing as an action liberal who also takes part in "movement" activities as well.

Well that's bullshit, utter bullshit. There are many so-called "action" liberals who participate in marches, go canvassing, phone bank, etc. Just look around on this site. Hell, look around anywhere. You're just defining the terms so that the people YOU like look good and the people you don't, don't.

The most popular pragmatic choice is to donate money and vote, and not to spend one's own time

No, the most popular pragmatic choice is to donate money, vote, phone bank, canvass, etc. Not to do all of one or the other.

Ben Nelson, Joe Liberman, or any of the Blue Dogs, are simply not pushing for progress; not by any measure you care to name. Yet they are largely considered, as moderates, among the most "pragmatic" denizens of Congress.

Bullshit they're considered "pragmatic." (Lieberman isn't a Democrat, btw.) Your mistake is interchanging the terms pragmatic and moderate. That is not always the case.

They are at the mercy of some "movement" types, who actually determine where the debate stands

If they're at the mercy of "movement liberals," why are they still voting the same way they always have?

"Action" liberals will decide to abandon liberal principles as the political winds blow.

Nope, this is precisely what "movement" liberals do. At least here on this website. One "wrong" vote and the person is a traitor, corporfascistdlcbluedogian. One wrong remark about one of their sacred cows and they get tossed under the bus by the "movement" types.

You can see this in the turmoil over allowing the tax cuts to expire, the deficit commission, the deals with revolving-door industry shills like Billy Tauzin, the refusal to support equal rights where unpopular, the list goes on.

ALL "action liberals" don't want the tax cuts to expire? ALL "action liberals" don't support equal rights where unpopular? Bullshit again.

As an establishment consensus builds and shifts the debate to the right, not only will "action" liberals vote on bills determined by the new reality, which "movement" liberals must do, they will also abandon rhetoric and positions that are at odds with that reality, which "movement" liberals do not do.

"Movement liberals" abandon principles (according to your framing) all the time. Feingold was only one of 8 Dems who voted FOR John Ashcroft's confirmation and also voted for John Roberts. I suppose there's a reason why you won't consider that "abandoning principles" by Feingold (but why it would be if, say, Obama did it).